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Voter Electronic Check-In Pilot Project

Three precincts in Stearns County will pioneer the use of electronic check-in on Election Day, Tuesday, November 7, 2017.

Rocori School District will be using electronic rosters instead of printed paper rosters for their special election. Voters in these precincts have two options when they get to their polling place on Election Day. They can either give their name to the election judge who will search for it electronically, or they can scan their driver’s license or MN ID card through the card reader and it will automatically find them. Once their registration is verified in the system, they’ll be asked to sign a printed voter receipt, replacing past practice of a signature on the paper roster.

Those citizens who aren’t registered to vote can do so electronically as well on Election Day. Either those voters can simply scan their driver’s license and it will auto fill a registration form for them or the election judge will register them electronically.

For voters, this electronic process means increased privacy as they can only see their name, and it’s a more accurate and much quicker check-in process. For elections staff, it’s also a more accurate check-in process as it avoids voters signing on the wrong line. It also reduces the amount of administrative work following the election, as information doesn’t need to be transferred from paper forms to electronic files.

“Thanks to the Rocori School District and election judges for working cooperatively with our elections staff on this project,” said Randy Schreifels, Stearns County Auditor-Treasurer.

Technicians will be on site at these precincts on Election Day in case of any potential problems with the process. Paper records will also be at the polling place only to be used as a back-up if there are technical difficulties.